6.m.
“Keep moving,”
Corporate Man said as they turned another corner in the seemingly endless
labyrinth of hallways.
“Why? We’ll never catch them,” said Franklin
Buck. “They’re always just rounding the
next corner every time we get to a new hallway.”
“I’m less
concerned with catching up to the office workers that are avoiding us than I am
over the half-naked ones that are trying to chase us down,” said Corporate
Man.
When they
reached the end of a long hallway, Franklin Buck looked behind them and saw a
mob of angry, partially dressed, white-collar types charge into view.
“I think we
need to go faster,” said Franklin Buck.
“No,” said
Fair Wage, gasping for breath. “I need
to stop.”
“I know you’re
tired–” Senior Executive started.
“It’s not
that, it’s this underwear. It’s bunching
up. I can’t take it anymore.”
“I think we
need to go smarter,” said Corporate Man, stopping suddenly in the middle of the
hall. He reached inside his jacket and
held out the greed-gun.
“What’s that?”
asked Commander Credit.
“Pieces of The
Greed,” said Business Woman. “Gives an
indication of where the nearest source of overt greed is located.”
“It doesn’t
work all that well, though,” said Senior Executive.
“Give it to
me,” Commander Credit said. He snatched
the toy gun from Corporate Man, held it in his normal hand, waving it back and
forth, sensing the vibrations of The Greed pieces inside.
“Umm… We kind
of need to hurry,” said Franklin Buck.
“You know. Angry mob headed this
way and all.”
For a moment
Commander Credit didn’t move. He didn’t
even breath. Then he bolted down the
corridor, shouting for everyone to follow.
They raced around the next series of corners and long hallways at a
furious pace. When they reached a short,
stubby corridor Commander Credit stopped in the center of it. He shifted some levers and gears on his
mechanical arm and then pressed it against one of the cubicle-like walls. There was a whirring sound as he removed the
bolts.
“Help me shift
this wall into place and block off the hallway behind us,” he said.
They pulled
the wall section free. Behind it lie
another corridor. At the far end of this
corridor was a group of maintenance men who were busy disassembling and
reassembling cubicle walls. They looked
at the Union with a start and began hurriedly
reconfiguring their wall sections in order to seal themselves off from the
surprise visitors.
Meanwhile, the
Union shifted their wall piece into its new location and
Commander Credit reattached it with the bolts.
“Hey! I saw you guys down there,” Franklin Buck
yelled. Then, in a lower tone, “Should
we go after them?”
“No,” said
Senior Executive. “They just work
here. We need to find the person in
charge.”
“Well, now
that we’ve got those office types off our backs,” said Commander Credit, “I
think I can modify this greed-sensing gun into a more effective piece of
hardware.”